January 24, 1901] 



NATURE 



305 



The annual general meeting of the Geologists' Association 

 will be held at University College on Friday, February i. The 

 president, Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., will deliver an address 

 entitled "Twelve Years of London Geolpgy." 



The thirty-first course of lectures and demonstrations for 

 sanitary officers will commence at the Sanitary Institute on 

 February i. There will be four lectures on elementary physics 

 and chemistry in relation to water, soil, air, ventilation and 

 mjteorology ; twenty-one lectures on public health statutes, the 

 practical duties of a sanitary inspector, municipal hygiene, and 

 building construction ; and seven lectures on meat and food 

 inspection. 



Captain J. C. Bernier, of Quebec, is in England, and has 

 described to a Reuter's representative and the Royal Colonial 

 Institute his plans for an Arctic expedition, which have re- 

 ceived the approval of the Quebec Geograpical Society. His first 

 plan is to enter Bering Strait during July, and, following the 

 Siberian coast, the ice would be entered between 170 and 165 

 degrees, as far east as its state would permit, pushing north in 

 August and September, and dropping buoys at intervals to test 

 the ice drift. Monthly, as the wind suited, small balloons 

 would be despatched with records, each balloon having a copy 

 of the previous records. Photography would be largely ^em- 

 ployed, kites being used for long-distance photographs. With 

 suitable appliances, it was known that a long distance could be 

 run on the packed ice during the proper season. In the second 

 spring and summer it is suggested that two routes be taken — 

 one in a north-east, the other in a south-west direction — with 

 stations at intervals, keeping communication with the ship by 

 wireless telegraphy and gun signals. The routes would be 

 marked at mile intervals by hollow staves, the hollows being 

 filled with condensed provisions and records, and each staff 

 would be numbered. When in the neighbourhood of the Pole, 

 the north-eastern route would be extended to more station?, 

 always in communication with the ship. These plans are to be 

 laid before the Canadian Government. 



The annual report of the Council of the Institution of 

 Mechanical Engineers was read at the annual meeting on 

 Friday last. We learn from it that the award of the Willans 

 premium has been for the first time in the gift of the Council, 

 and, from the papers read before the Institution since the 

 foundation of the fund in January 1895, they have selected 

 that read in April 1895 by Captain H. Raill Sankey, on 

 " Governing of Steam-Engines by Throttling and by Variable 

 Expansion," as the most suitable for the award. Sir 

 William Roberts-Austen is still at work upon the sixth 

 report to the alloys research committee, dealing mainly 

 with the effect of annealing and tempering on the pro- 

 perties of steel. Prof. F. W. Burstall expects to complete 

 his second report to the gas-engine research committee in the 

 course of a few weeks. Progress has been made in the 

 experiments on the value of the steam-jacket, by Prof. T. 

 Hudson Beare. Prof D. S. Capper has made a first series of 

 tests on the compound steam-jacketed engine at King's College 

 with different steam-pressures and speeds, working single- 

 cylinder, non-condensing. The results have been worked out, 

 and are expected to be ready shortly. The Council have 

 consented to take charge of the mechanical section of the 

 Glasgow International Engineering Congress, the meetings of 

 which will be held during the first week of September. They 

 have also decided that these arrangements should not interfere 

 with the ordinary summer meeting of the Institution, which 

 will be held during the last week in July at Barrow-in-Furness. 

 Mr. W. H. Maw has been elected to succeed Sir W. H. White 

 as president of the Institution. 



NO. 1630, VOL. d'^ 



The experiments made with a view to using liquid air as one 

 of the constituents of an explosive are described by Mr. A. 

 Larsen in a paper (No. 786) received from the Institution of 

 Mining Engineers. The cartridges used for blasting trials in 

 the Simplon tunnel consisted of a wrapper filled with a carbon- 

 aceous material, such, for instance, as a mixture of equal parts 

 of paraffin and of charcoal, and dipped bodily in liquid air 

 until completely soaked. The cartridges were kept in liquid 

 air at the working face of the rock until required for use, when 

 they were put quickly in the shot-holes and detonated with a 

 small guncotton primer and detonator. The life of such a 

 cartridge is, unfortunately, very short after the cartridge has 

 been removed from the liquid air. A cartridge eight inches in 

 length and three inches in diameter has to be fired within fifteen 

 minutes after being taken out of the liquid to avoid a miss- fire. 

 On this account the Simplon trials were discontinued ; never- 

 theless, Mr. Larsen says that much attention is still being 

 devoted to the matter in Germany, where investigations are 

 being carried on in three different centres, one of them being 

 the largest explosives works on the Continent, namely, the 

 carbonite factory at Schlebusch. 



A REPORT of the Government of India shows that during the 

 year 1899 the number of deaths among human beings attributed 

 to wild animals was 2966. Tigers caused the death of 899, 

 wolves of 338, and leopards of 327 human beings, while bears, 

 elephants, hyenas, jackals and crocodiles were accountable for a 

 large proportion of the remainder. The loss of human life from 

 snakes reached the high total of 24,621, a greater mortality than 

 in any of the four preceding years. Nearly half the deaths 

 occurred in Bengal, while the North-Western Provinces and 

 Oudh came next with nearly one-fourth of the total. In Bengal 

 the relatively high mortality is attributed to floods, which drove 

 the snakes to the high lands on which village homesteads are 

 built. As will be observed, snakes are more destructive of 

 human life than are the wild animals, but the reverse is true of 

 the destruction of cattle. In 1899 no fewer than 89,238 cattle 

 were destroyed by wild animals, and 9449 by snakes. 



The U.S. Weather Bureau has published a very useful and 

 comprehensive treatise on West Indian hurricanes, by. Prof. 

 E. B. Garriott {Bulletin, No. 232). The chief of the Weather 

 Bureau points out that the paper in question reviews the writings 

 of the more prominent meteorologists of the past century, so far 

 as they refer to the tropical storms of the North Atlantic, and 

 that it graphically illustrates and describes the more important 

 hurricanes that have occurred during the last twenty-five years. 

 A table is given (partly taken from that by Senor A. Poey) of the 

 chronological occurrence of West Indian hurricanes since 1493. 

 This list shows that while storms occurred in every month, the 

 great majority took place between July and October. During 

 the principal hurricane months the storms generally recurved 

 east of the Gulf of Mexico, the mean track being farther west in 

 September, when it approached very near the East Florida 

 coast. But the tracks from 1878 to 1900, which are laid down 

 on charts, show that during the principal hurricane months re- 

 curvature may occur from far to the eastward of the Bahamas 

 to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico. 



We have received from the meteorological reporter for 

 Western India a copy of his " Brief Sketch of the Meteorology of 

 the Bombay Presidency for 1899-1900." The meteorology of the 

 year is of more than usual interest, owing to the almost unpre- 

 cedented failure of the south-west monsoon rains over a large 

 region, and the consequent partial or total failure of crops and 

 water supply. From a statement showing the most severe 

 droughts and famines of the last 150 years, and the areas 

 affected, it appears that the drought of 1899 and famine of 

 1899-1900 extended over a very much larger area than that of 



